Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

mooomin

cw18 wrote: »

But it still came as one heck of a shock when I was told they were 'letting me go', so I can't even begin to comprehend how it must feel when it comes out of the blue

We were told in my work about two years ago that we had to reapply for our jobs and that some of us would be made redundant. We did this, I kept a job - although not the one I wanted - and all seemed well. Less than a month after that an HR error meant that I was told that I was going to be made redundant (they were wrong, but it took them a while to figure it out) and I remember the shock as being physical.

At the time I was post-LBM but still mired in debt and really didn't know how we would cope if I lost my job. I was gutted. As I said, in my case it wasn't to be, but I have never forgotten the sheer terror and that's why I'm determined to be as frugal as I can so I can build up savings. I work in an unstable sector and suspect there will be more redundancies before things improve

My love and thoughts to patentgirl - I hope things work out for you.

23rdspiral

flying_fresian wrote: »

Quick budget question:

I currently rent a room out to Mr F's sister in our flat (Although I will be giving her notice shortly, the annoying little harpy...that's another matter though!) and don't know if I should include her rent as additional income as it might make the challenge too easy :rotfl:

As I said, she'll be out of the house soon and I'll be back to my own income only (Plus overtime etc)

Thing is, including her rent in the challenge would almost wipe out January's overspend, and I am using her rent to pay off my cinema pass which is part of the reason for said overspend. THOUGHTS?!?!

my gut reaction is that as it's not gauranteed/longterm then i wouldnt put it in my income.

BUT as she's clearly annoying you, then spending her cash on your much loved cinema pass is a Fantastic thing to do.:D

Therefore, i'd consider actually removing your cinema pass from the spreadsheet for that reason (well, not entirely remove, as there's always next year... i'd put PAID in the cost box and add a 'comment' to say where the money came from.) that way it wont affect the totals or anything. (this is what i'll do when i spend my birthday money)

DateWhereWhatCost eachQtyTotal10-JanM&S kids toy (for xxx to buy)2.00PAID

(wow, i do think i'm getting on better with the spreasheet of wonder!)

mooomin

23rdspiral wrote: »

my gut reaction is that as it's not gauranteed/longterm then i wouldnt put it in my income.

Hmmm....good plan.

Thing is though, I do put in other things which make me money but aren't guaranteed like:

Quidco
Overtime
Ebay

As it helps me to see what is helping me to pay for any additional "treats" which would otherwise take me over budget. It's a tricky one to be sure!

(This argument may be because I played with the Spreadsheet of Wonder and adding this money made me green for in-budget again )

Off to use said cinema pass now anyway - Black Swan tonight. That will be my second film since Saturday which equates to £15.80 if I had paid for each one. The pass works out at £13.50 per month so I have already "used" my allocation for this month if it's going to pay for itself. I've also got a page in my diary which I'm writing all the films I see into so I can see not only how much I've saved but what I've seen too. I think I might need to get a life :rotfl:

Marru

Here to declare how I did in January. Now after long hours doing a cash flow analysis and getting better grip on my outgoings and agonising I have decided to increase my budget from £4,000.0 to £4,800.- Now this might look like cheating but I have recently moved house and because of the house move my electricity, gas, landline and broadband are more expensive than in the previous place and I really don't want to put myself into a situation of sure failure.

Only other category I have tweaked is groceries. I am still aiming for £25.- per week but to get the total budget to the level I had set it in the beginning of the challenge I should bring that down a lot, which will be so not viable option. At least not at the moment. I might get better in time. (I had BF overspending in that category BIG TIME when I was working abroad )

So despite giving myself a higher budget I have overpent in January by £156.04 but this I am comfortable that I can claw back later in the year. But the good news is that I ended up January with £1,215.21 more coming in than going out - mostly thanks to tax refund :T

23rdspiral

flying_fresian wrote: »

Hmmm....good plan.

Thing is though, I do put in other things which make me money but aren't guaranteed like:

Quidco
Overtime
Ebay

good point. i had to do that when working a few pt jobs but hadnt thought of it now. i dont count survey monies but maybe i should as they are often spent on presents.

Personally i'd still find a way to include At Least the bit of her money that covers the cinema pass! that way its totally accounted for and all simply a pleasure and not a guilty one at that!

miss_empty_piggy

JayneC wrote: »

hello all,

BTW Empty Miss Piggy I know it was ages ago but I'm sure it was you talking about holidays in the South of France. I used to go with ex OH and the younger kids and we always went with Eurocamp or Keycamp and drove down. We stayed in a caravan but you can stay in a tent much cheaper. The vans are decent and have aircon and the sites were really nice, a good choice for cheap hols. As it's so hot there you could go at whit break when it's much cheaper than summer break and you don't die in the heat!! There were forest fires in the summer just near where we stayed once (Frejus) but we'd gone in June so thankfully missed it. HTH

Scarlett I love your poem x

We all seem pretty optimistic at the moment - lets hope that continues xx

Jaynex

Thanks JayneC, that's really useful. I think camping would be great especially somewhere warm, never found it particularly appealing in mablethorpe when we got drenched. I think i'd quite like it if it's warmer!!!! I shall check those out. Thanks for the tip. :T

mogan6

Oooh CRANKY40, I wish I lived in your area because I would dearly love to be able to crochet but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it somehow. My mother taught me how to knit many moons ago but crochet just escapes me.

nicelette, thanks for posting the soup recipe, I’ll give that a try

redglass, thanks for the info re pulses etc. We don’t have any kind of co operative here but I’ll keep looking at Approved Foods.

patentgirl, I’m really sorry to hear your news. Redundancy is bad at any time but to come right out of the blue must leave you shell shocked. I hope something turns up soon for you.

Erme, you’ve had a day and a half haven’t you? I hope tomorrow is a better day

I'm just going to make a cuppa and settle down to watch Holby City.

Mo
xx

SandraScarlett

patentgirl wrote: »

thanks eveyone for your support got a feeling willl be needing it more than ever xxx

So sorry to hear about your redundancy, especially as it was unexpected. It must be a dreadful shock, and I hope you find something soon.

xx

miss_empty_piggy

So sorry to hear your terrible news Patentgirl. Big Hugs go out to you and your family. x

never_too_old

My word, reading through these forums i keep on seeing more and more people being made redundent,
my hubby is in the building trade and this is now the 3rd year we have noticed work demising. I hoped with the change of goverment that things would improve but they appear to be getting worse.
we are all trying really hard to sort ourselves out but thats a bit hard when jobs and industries are going left right and centre.

i do hope that all that have or are going to loose there jobs find something soon and that whoever is moving the goal posts stops as its getting annoying.

(sorry rant over)